Galaxy S8 Release Date Revealed In New Leak

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 is going to be one of 2017’s biggest (and most controversial) smartphones, but now we have a release date and it may well be late to market…

The information arrives via Korea thanks to the ever vigilant SamMobile and says Samsung could well skip its regular unveiling spot at Mobile World Congress in February. Instead Samsung is thought to be considering a separate event in New York in March with the Galaxy S8 subsequently not going on sale until April 18th.

This would be a significant delay compared to the Galaxy S7 which was released on March 11th 2016, but it would actually be more inline with Galaxy S releases historically. After all the Galaxy S6, S5 and S4 all went on sale in April on the 10th, 11th and 27th respectively. Prior to that Galaxy S3, S2 and S1 handsets were released towards the middle of the year in May/June.

Furthermore the April 18th date ties in with recent reports that Samsung will start mass production of the Galaxy S8 in early March. As such I’d suggest you watch out for conspiracy theories regarding this later date. Especially if they try to tie it to the Galaxy Note 7’s battery problems.

Some of this is likely to stem from news Samsung will again use its battery division,
Samsung SDI, to supply batteries for the Galaxy S8. This is because SDI supplied batteries for the ‘explosive’ Galaxy Note S7, but such a conclusion would be reductionist since the same problems were also found when Samsung used replacement batteries by ATL.

The design language expected for Samsung's 2017 smartphones features much smaller top and bottom bezels. Image credit: Veniamin Geskin

As such it is widely believed the fault lies not with the batteries but how tightly they were packed inside the Galaxy Note 7. Samsung confirmed at CES this week that it will disclose its full findings from the Galaxy Note 7 investigation soon.